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Rapelye: Class of 2008 'the very best'

Posted September 3, 2004; 12:46 a.m.

by quinones

The anticipation experienced by many of those on campus as a new class enters the University is especially intense for Janet Rapelye this fall.

The class of 2008 is the first group of Princeton students she has been in charge of selecting. Rapelye, who became dean of admission in July 2003, is understandably proud.

"We were able to follow the mandates outlined by the trustees and the president to bring in the very best class," she said. "We worked at identifying intellectual curiosity and academic excellence in the candidates we admitted, and also [considered] the leadership skills, talents and personal qualities that they would bring to this campus to enrich the community life here."

Rapelye said she spent the first few months of last year's recruiting season learning the Princeton system. By the time early decision applications began arriving in the fall, she was ready to make a change by building a committee process into the review of applications.

Rapelye, who has worked in admissions at several institutions -- most recently as dean of admission at Wellesley College for 12 years -- drew upon her experience and her staff to develop a plan. "We took the best practices from other schools," she said. "We met as a staff and worked together to find the best process for Princeton."

The admission office conducted both the early decision and regular decision processes by committee, and Rapelye said she was very pleased with the way the staff dove into the difficult task of selecting 1,175 students from among more than 13,000 applications. "They were excellent readers," she said, "and that made for very solid and thoughtful, responsible and reasoned judgments about which students to admit."